First Look

The Red Army entered WWII with most of its heavy artillery drawn by horses, making its movement slow and vulnerable to attack. The KV-2 assault gun was built to address the need for mobile artillery, but it was unsatisfactory as a fighting vehicle because of its large and overweight turret. It was therefore decided to replace the KV-2 with a new vehicle based on the KV-1S chassis. But instead of a turret, the 152mm ML-20S gun-howitzer would be mounted in a low profile casemate.

Several designs were put forward, but the KV-14 showed the most promise and was further developed into the SU-152 by February 1943.This self-propelled gun weighed in at 45.5 tons and had frontal armor up to 75mm thick. It was powered by a 600bhp V-2K diesel engine with a top speed of 43km/h. It was built at the Chelyabinskiy Kirovskiy factory until replaced in production by the ISU-152 in December 1943. Though designed as an assault gun, the SU-152 gained a reputation as a "Tiger Killer", due to the huge explosion of the HE shells knocking the turrets off of the German tanks.

The cast texture on the casemate is really nice and will look great under paint. The kit is detailed inside and out and features a full engine and driver's compartment. The torsion bar suspension is fully workable. The individual track links do not have any knockout pins on them, so clean up and assembly will be faster than normal.